953 posts categorized "Match.com"
Match Group's CEO on Innovating in a Fast-Changing Industry
HBR.ORG - Aug 5 - The speed of change is one of the things I love about this industry. Companies need to innovate constantly - with technology, pricing, product features, and business models - to stay ahead of competitors and continue to grow. I ran Chemistry.com from 2006 to 2008. It was my first general management job, and I loved building the team. We grew the site quickly. As Chemistry.com expanded, the company's flagship Match.com seemed to be plateauing. So in 2008 management asked me to move over to Match.com and try to reenergize that brand. Two important shifts were under way that hurt Match.com. First, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish, had pioneered a new ad-supported business model. The second shift involved algorithms. By 2008 companies were getting more sophisticated about analyzing and understanding users' preferences and behavior. In 2009 Match made its first big acquisition, in the form of a company called People Media, that had a variety of smaller sites aimed at specific demographics. Facebook and Twitter were bringing more people onto social media, which sparked more interest in online dating, especially from older people. The biggest technology shift came after 2008. That's when Apple introduced the App Store. Within a few years that completely changed the face of our industry - a change sparked largely by Tinder. Last year Tinder's revenue topped $800M, demonstrating that many people are willing to pay for features. Right now we're working on several new strategies that we expect will drive our next phase of growth.
by Mandy Ginsberg
See full article at Harvard Business Review
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Singles in America: Match Releases 9th Annual Study on U.S. Single Population
MATCH.COM - July 30 - This new data reveals how America's singles are looking for love, yet are fatigued by the process - as well as their current attitudes around sex and dating. It also uncovers the sex habits of Gen Z and Millennials, how men are responding to the #MeToo movement, and how singles of all ages are rewriting America's love story. 83% feel that love is hard to find, while 43% reported believing that technology has made finding love more difficult. Yet still 75% of singles are hopeful that love is out there, and ~60% are motivated to find romantic love. Only 9% of singles are looking to date casually.
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Match is Launching a New Campaign With Actress Rebel Wilson
OPW - July 31 - Rebel Wilson is partnering with Match for their new podcast called LetsMakeLove.com.
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#MeToo Has Changed How a Lot of Single Men Behave
CBS NEWS - July 31 - Match.com conducted a new study that looked at how #MeToo has affected dating culture. The study found that 51% of men have changed their behavior, 40% of men have changed their behavior at work and 33% of men have changed their behavior on a date. According to Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist and the chief scientific adviser for Match, men are being more careful, reserved and more cognizant of the kinds of jokes they make in an effort to have the right kinds of conversations.
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Match.com: the Busiest Day This Summer
MINDBODYGREEN - July 4 - Match analyzed their 20 years of historical data on app activity and predict July 7, 2019 (the Sunday after the Fourth of July) will be their busiest day of the summer. That's partially because it happens over a long holiday weekend, when they always see a jump in the number of people using dating apps, but it also has to do with the real start of summer finally rolling in. According to Match, they're expecting a 20% increase in activity on July 7 in comparison to Valentine's Day.
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Match.com & Tinder's Privacy Red Flags
THREATPOST - June 21 - Analysts at ProPrivacy.com say the dating apps collect everything from chat content to financial data on their users - and then they share it. Match.com reserves the right to collect much more information than just the typical demographic breakdown of gender, age and relationship status. This is ostensibly to be able to build a thorough online profile to help find "matches"; but as a result, users will share highly personal and emotional data with the platform. Tinder highlights that it collects chat data. "Of course we also process your chats with other users as well as the content you publish, as part of the operation of the services," Tinder's privacy policy states. Match.com said in its policy that it shares basic demographic as well as "personal information" with "third parties that assist us with various tasks, including data hosting and maintenance, analytics, customer care, marketing, advertising, payment processing and security operations."
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Match.com Is Engaging Single Parents With Integrated Childcare
PSFK - June 12 - Childcare, which is notoriously expensive and hard to manage, can be a hurdle for parents who want to pursue their social lives on top of raising children. So Match.com partnered with European childcare booking service Yoopies to provide three free hours of babysitting to U.K. users who are single parents.
Mark Brooks: This is a great example of how dating apps can extend services (and demonstrate care). There are so many more aspects to dating, and relationships, and life after dating that we can delve into and deliver curated services.
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Can We Trust the Match Group Cartel With Our Dating Data?
PROPRIVACY - June 6 - Nearly half of the Match Group's subscribers are not aware of the other dating platforms owned by IAC. 61% of subscribers across Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish and Hinge are concerned about the amount of data they share with the platforms. 65% don't know who owns their dating service. In order for online dating services to be effective at finding compatible partners, they require data. The more personal data they feed into the platforms, the better chance they have of finding a match. But many users don't realize just how much data they're giving away or exactly how these companies use that data once it's handed it over. This lack of awareness is by design. Tinder states in its privacy policy, "…we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information will always remain secure."
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How an AI Can Be an Online Dating Coach and Help People Find Love
FOX5NY - May 21 - The online dating sector is turning to artificial intelligence. Match.com in the UK launched Lara, an AI dating coach available on Google Home smart speakers and some Android devices. Users ask Lara for a match and can then ask for suggestions on what to say to or do with the person they're matched with. Dating app companies are trying to figure out how to satisfy their users, which is why they are trying AI. AIMM, a voice-activated dating app, launched last year and is being tested in Denver with about a thousand users. AIMM sets up dates, preps users before the first date, gives them advice, and checks in with both people to see how it went. And it even recommends whether they should continue to date or move on to someone else. Experts believe this is the future.
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Match Rolled Out Coaching Service - AskMatch
BUSINESS INSIDER - May 14 - This week, Match rolled out its new member service, AskMatch, a one-on-one phone call with a dating coach. Members can discuss issues like dressing for a first date, defining a relationship, or even pick up line workshopping. According to Match CEO Hesam Hosseini, the service performed best with young men in its beta test, with three times more men opting into the service than women. Hosseini joined as CEO in January 2018 and was swiftly tasked with helping the service appear to his millennial peers. "I'm a millennial, and this is a service my generation wants and needs," Hosseini said. "Yes, they don't want to talk on the phone and are automating grocery delivery, but they also seek one-on-one advice for relationships. It's kind of like a personal trainer."
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Courtland Brooks Book-of-the-Month - The Players Ball
COURTLAND BROOKS - May 7 - If you've not heard of the tawdry story of the founder of Match, then you'll like this book. Actually, even if you know it, its worth a read. Stanford law grad, Gary Kremen founded Match.com and bought a number of top tier domains. This is the story of how he started Match and his fight to reel in a particular domain that was stolen from him. See the Amazon book.
Find out more about Courtland Brooks services. Please email mark@courtlandbrooks.com for more info.
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Most Popular Dating Apps
PCMAG - Mar 25 - PCMag surveyed dating-app preferences across the US. Tinder was the most popular, winning 27 states. Match was the most popular in 17 states, and Bumble came in third. PCMag has surveyed ~2K US consumers.
by Rob Marvin
See full article at PCMag
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Science of Love
DAILY TARGUM - Feb 28 - Helen Fisher, a research associate and chief scientific advisor for Match.com, broke down her findings regarding love, relationships and the chemical processes that cause these functions. An expert on love, Fisher has conducted an annual study on 30K singles in the US with Match.com for the past nine years. She said love is a bodily function. "It's a drive. In fact, when my colleagues and I put people into the brain scanner and found basic brain circuitry for romantic love, we found activity in a tiny factory in the base of the brain called the ventral tegmental area that pumps out dopamine," Fisher said. "It lies near brain regions that regulate thirst and hunger." Fisher divided love into three distinct systems for mating and reproduction: sex drive, feelings of romantic love and feelings of intense attachment. Physical appearance is like a prescreening toward love, she said. A person's looks are the first thing that other people evaluate, whether they are seen in a bar, subway, church or even on Tinder. The issue with online dating is that people stay on the sites for too long. An alternative to this problem is to redefine dating sites as "introducing sites."
by Christian Balbuena
See full article at Daily Targum
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Hottest Times for Singles to Be Online
THINKNUM - Feb 19 - According to data from OkCupid.com, the hottest times to log into dating apps is from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. GMT. That five hour window is consistently a busy time to be online and looking for love.
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Jared Sine Is Making All the Right Legal Moves for Match.com
CHRON - Feb 12 - The Texas Lawbook and the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel announced Thursday night that Jared Sine is the winner of the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel's General Counsel of the Year Award for a Large Legal Department. During his 30 months as general counsel and corporate secretary at Match, Sine has tripled the size of the legal department.
by Mark Curriden
See full article at Chron
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Match.com Pays Off for Rare Frog
NEWSER - Jan 18 - For the last decade, Romeo had been the last known frog of his kind, but that has since changed thanks to an online dating stunt. Researchers put up a profile for Romeo on Match, and the resulting attention raised $25K, enough to fund a search expedition in Bolivia. Researchers found three more males and two females, including an adult who has been named Juliet. Once the frogs are out of quarantine, Juliet will be matched with Romeo in the hope that offspring will result.
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Who Got the Most News Coverage in 2018?
OPW - Jan 13 - Every day we review the news and bubble up what we think are summaries of the most important intell in the most important news items. All year, every day. Then in January we like to do an annual review of the news and let you know who got the most coverage on OPW.news for the prior year. Subscribe here for daily updates.
Here's the rankings for who got the most press coverage on OPW.news in 2018.
- Tinder, 182 posts on OPW.news
- Bumble, 116 posts
- Match Group, 105 posts
- Facebook Dating, 58 posts
- Grindr, 40 posts
- Badoo, 33 posts
- eharmony, 33 posts
- Match, 29 posts
- OKCupid, 28 posts
- Hinge, 24 posts
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10 Years Ago, Match.com Was Dying, According to Markus Frind
OPW 'BLAST FROM THE PAST' - Jan 3 - This month, 10 years ago, Match.com launched a free dating site DownToEarth as an answer to ever growing threat from Markus Frind's free dating site - PlentyOfFish. DownToEarth only lasted 10 months when Match.com decided to relaunch it as Stir.com, a service that would recommend the best places to go and meet like-minded people. Mandy Ginsberg, back then GM of Match.com, commented: "It became obvious that DownToEarth resonated with 18-25 years old. Based on feedback, we are evolving the site experience to be more relevant for that audience which includes suggestions for places to hang out as well as people to go there with." Match needed to create a product to draw in and warm up a new generation of Match.com users. Stir seemed like a good idea at that time but little did they know that the real game changer (Tinder) was yet to come. In the meantime, money kept on rolling in for PlentyOfFish.com. The site was bringing in $10M annual revenue with 50% profit. "Yahoo is a complete joke, Google is a cult, and Match is dying," said Frind in an interview with INC. in January 2009. Fast forward 10 years, Match Group is an $11B dating empire which owns 50+ dating brands including PlentyOfFish which Frind sold to Match for $575M in cash in 2015. Meanwhile, Markus Frind, happy to keep every single penny from the POF sale, is venturing into the wine business by opening Frind Estate Winery in West Kelowna, Canada. So what will the online dating world look like in another 10 years? Your comments please...
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Barry Diller On the Internet Revolution: Really Young, Truly Radical, Very Troubled
WEBPRO NEWS - Nov 3 - Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia, recently reflected on the relative youthfulness of the Internet and areas which are still ripe for entrepreneurs. IAC owns Tinder and Match. People forget that the Internet revolution is still really young, only 22 or 23 years. It took 10-15 years just to get up enough bandwidth to actually have rich media being served through it. We are really at the very earliest stage of this.
Part 1
Part 2
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